> programming for biology and medical research ... is just like any other mediocre programming job, but your office is a folding table under a decommissioned fume hood.
That is sooo spot on (left my bioinformatics job a month ago for the exact same reason).
What the author additionally misses is that when you have never programmed/developed as your primary means of making a living, you likely have never worked with people who do not consider programming to be scary voodoo magic, and thus you have missed out on a golden opportunity to learn from others who are better than you. If you value your skills, always try to be around people better than you, otherwise you will end up cut off from the rest in a dark corner writing silly musings like this one.
P.S. I guess you can interpret this comment as "Have read the article but ignored where it's from and who wrote it."
I get what you mean about learning from other people, but I don't think it's as black and white.
I think working on FOSS projects with the community can be just as rewarding and educational as working with someone in a similar scenario in a business environment, particularly when it is taken seriously and you leverage the community to better educate yourself in areas you aren't familiar with.
I just think it's disingenuous to imply that the only programmers who are better than you (or I) do it as a 9-5 job. Some do it just for fun.
Hey I'm not putting down FOSS -- the only way I myself learned that there is a better world out there is through FOSS. My comment was more general (i.e. if you are a programmer, it will do good to you to be around other programmers at least for some time; if you are an artist, it will do good to you to be around other artists for a while, etc.).
That is sooo spot on (left my bioinformatics job a month ago for the exact same reason).
What the author additionally misses is that when you have never programmed/developed as your primary means of making a living, you likely have never worked with people who do not consider programming to be scary voodoo magic, and thus you have missed out on a golden opportunity to learn from others who are better than you. If you value your skills, always try to be around people better than you, otherwise you will end up cut off from the rest in a dark corner writing silly musings like this one.
P.S. I guess you can interpret this comment as "Have read the article but ignored where it's from and who wrote it."